Rock Island daily Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1886-1893, 1887-09-30


After all that has been said about the
wonderful sailing abilities of the Thistle,
it must be somewhat notifying to her
enthusiastic hackers to find how poor
showing she made against the crack 1an~
kee sloop. Instead of making a close
race of il, the Scotch cutter received a
more merciless drubbing at the hands Of
her American riva. than any OF the Brit
ish competitors of former years. Accord
ing to the opinion of all experts in such
matters, the conditions were the most
favorable that the friends of the Thistle
could have possibly asked for The wind
was light, which was admittedly in her
favor and the course II comparatively
smooth one, yet she was beaten al every
point by the Volunteer which showed
during the latter half of the contest. by
the remarkably increased speed which
was developed under Il trrshening breeze,
what might nave beth Tue itsult Will II
fair wind from the start
The race has demonstrated very clearly
the fact which has been apparent 10 ex
perts for some time past that the Nolun>
teer is a phenomenal sailer and is in
every respect the most remarkable yacht
ever constructed Whether il demon
strntes the absolute superiority OF the
centreboard over the cutter model may in
the minds of many. be still Il mooted
question, but for most sensible people il
will not require any stronger proof than
Tuesday, race to satisfy their minds on
this point. There is extremely small
probability that the remaining contests
in the present series will change the re-
suit, which now seems inevitable. and
American yachtsmen may rest assured
that the CUP will remain with them for
the coming year.
Looking over the contests for ,he past
three years it will be seen that they have
been productive of the most gratifying
results, so far AS the advancement of the
interests of yachting in America are con-
cerned. Each succeeding year has wit
messed vast improvement in the meth
DDS of yacht construction, where in every
case there appeared to be absolutely no
room for improvement. In 1885 the
Puritan was regarded as the perfection
of yacht building, but the Mavflower
came the next year to successfully dis
pute her claims and now the Volunteer
is so far ahead of both that there seems
very little probability OF an improvement
upon her model for some time to come.
Yet it is quite within the bounGs of pos
sibility that this may he done before the
close of another season. Looking at the
history of English yacht building during
this same period We do not find any such
marked Improvement, although there has
been undoubtedly II slight advance
From this fact the natural inference
might be that the possibilities Of the
cutter type of yacht had been exhausted,
or at least that the model was capable OF
very little further improvement.
That the limit of development for the
centre BOARD type an the other hand has
not yet been reached is sufficiently evil
denced by the steady improvement of
each secondary year. and it is not unfair
to assume for this reason that of the two
the latter type is the more rational and
scientific, and gives the greatest scope
for development and improvement. AT
any rate, the relative merits of the two
have not been sufficiently tested to make
it very plain which is the most service
able snd desirable of the present stage of
development, and it would not be sur
prising to see Englishmen coming over to
the same way OF thinking before very
long.